Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has just shared his take on Visa acquiring payment startup Plaid for $5.3 bln, claiming that 2020 will be the year of consolidation in fintech and crypto. The XRP community is curious whether this could be a hint of new acquisitions the San Francisco-based blockchain giant plans to make this year.
Not surprising to see this kind of consolidation, and expect this will set the stage for more to come in 2020 - in fintech, crypto and beyond. https://t.co/SMVNxZd1br
— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) January 14, 2020
Visa acquires a fintech giant
Visa, the number one payments technology company that is responsible for processing $3.4 trln transactions, bought Plaid for $5.3 bln, the sum that doubles the company’s valuation of $2.65 bln. Visa and Mastercard themselves invested in Plaid during its $250 mln funding round before the acquisition, which might explain such an enormous premium.
The takeover of the fintech darling will give Visa a great opportunity to “accelerate” the company’s business beyond cards, according to its CEO Al Kelly.
More acquisitions in 2020?
The need for consolidation seems to be the new talking point of Garlinghouse. As reported by U.Today, he opined that the world didn’t need more than 3,000 cryptocurrencies, and the industry should expect “a migration to quality” in 2020.
Notably, Ripple recently completed its own $200 mln Series C funding round that allowed it to end up in the $10 bln club. The XRP community expects the decacorn to continue expanding its ecosystem.
We haven’t heard from #Ripple lately @BGarlinghouse so can you tell us if @Ripple will be making big acquisitions in 2020 to boost #XRP’s ecosystem?
— XRPcryptowolf (@XRPcryptowolf) January 14, 2020
I’m assuming that you’ll be making big strategic moves & partnerships since you got $200 Million dollars from your Series C round
Ripple currently owns a 10 percent stake in MoneyGram after investing $50 mln in the struggling company.
Valeria Blokhina
